... plastic packaging, which uses an estimated 200,000 barrels of oil a day in the United States. Also, PLA is in ... corn-based plastics are starting to look cheap, now that oil prices are so high. For a few years, natural foods purveyors ... , which company executives estimate will save 800,000 barrels of oil annually.By Elizabeth RoyteSmithsonian magazine, August 2006, Subscribe The production ...